Child pester power may be the key to getting adults to cut use of salt and protect themselves against high blood pressure, British researchers say today.
The findings come from a study in China backed by the British Medical Research Council – so may not apply so easily to western countries.
Some 28 schools in Changzhi in northern China took part in a controlled trial.
It involved teaching primary school children about the dangers of salt. Children then had to give the message to the family – and persuade the family cook to cut the use of salt.
The findings, reported in The BMJ, found there was high salt intake in the region – and the project led to adults cutting the use of salt by half a teaspoon a day, a 25% reduction.
Researcher Dr Feng He, of the Wolfson Institute, Queen Mary, University of London, said: “The study provides a novel, feasible, effective and important approach to reducing salt intake in the population where most of the salt in the diet is added by consumers.
“As the salt reduction education was delivered to children using the schools’ usual health education lessons, it could be easily incorporated into the national school curriculum. A nationwide implementation will lead to a major reduction in salt intake in the Chinese population and therefore a reduction in strokes and heart attacks.”
Fellow researcher Professor Graham McGregor, chairman of World Action on Salt and Health, said: This study has achieved a reduction in salt intake of a quarter. Such a big reduction in salt intake could prevent approximately 400,000 stroke and heart attack events in China, half of which would be fatal."
He added: “In most developed countries, most of the salt in the diet is hidden in processed food, kids can still play a role in helping their family to reduce salt, e.g. by selecting food with less salt when shopping with their parents and getting them to reduce the amount of salt they add to their food."
School based education programme to reduce salt intake in children and their families (School-EduSalt): cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ 19 March 2015;350:h770. [abstract]
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